Archivists’ Toolkit
Towards Streamlined Archival Workflow
Lee Mandell
Kelcy Shepherd
Brian Stevens
Brad Westbrook
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Overview
• Project Update
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Project Objective and Staff
First year efforts
Goals for second year
Prospects beyond the grant period
• AT Software Specification
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Specification Framework
Specification Modules
Application architecture and technology
Demonstration example
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Project Objectives
• Digital tools to support archival processing in a manner
that promotes efficiency and standardization
• Focus on core archives functions of accessioning, resource
description, subject and name management and
application, and resource location
• Support outputs such as EAD, EAC, METS, and various
administrative reports
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Project Team
• Brian Schottlaender, UCSD, Co-Principal Investigator
• Carol Mandel, NYU, Co-Principal Investigator
• Brad Westbrook, Proj. Mgr & Spec Team Leader
• Lee Mandell, NYU, Design Team Mgr
• Kelcy Shepherd, Analyst
• Brian Stevens, Analyst
• Luc Declerck, UCSD, and David Ackerman, NYU,
Administrative Oversight
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Project Advisory Board
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Robin Chandler, CDL
Michael Fox, MHS
Merrilee Proffitt, RLG
Richard Szary, Yale
Guenter Waibel, RLG
Beth Yakel, U Mich
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Project Partners
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Bates College
Five Colleges: Amherst College Archives and Special
Collections, Hampshire College Archives, Mount Holyoke
College Archives and Special Collections, Smith College
Archives & Sophia Smith Collection, & UMass-Amherst,
Special Collections and Archives
NYC: The American Museum of Natural History, The
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, The Center for Jewish
History, & Manhattan College
NYU: Fales Library, Tamiment Library, University Archives
UCSD: Mandeville Special Collections & SIO Archives
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
First Year Accomplishments
• Functional Requirements Identified
• Application Specification Composed
• Design Team Manager Hired
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Goals for Second Year
• Build Prototype from AT Specification
– Interface Design
• Compose User Documentation
– User Manual
– Application Help Module
– Installation Scripts
• Test Application and Documentation
– Functional Testing
– Usability Testing
• Formulate Business Plan
• Release Tested Application
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Prospects Beyond the Grant Period
• Modular Design Architecture in Open Source Software
• Possible Extensions include
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More Robust Collection Management Module
Additional Tools to Support Ingest of Local Data
Extended Digital Object (Surrogate) Module
User Registration / Resource Use Module
• Shared Development
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Application Overview
Brian Stevens
New York University
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Pieces Included in the Specification
Overview
– General Description
– Product context
– Software system
– Context diagram
– Application diagram
– Software system attributes
– Installation requirements
– Performance requirements
– Design constraints
– Other requirements
– User characteristics
– Task list
– Data flow diagram
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
– Data dictionary
General Description
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Problem Statement
Purpose of the Software Specification
Scope of the Archivists’ Toolkit
Glossary
Data Dictionary
References
Acknowledgements
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
The Toolkit Functions
• integrate key functions in the archival descriptive
cycle
• ingest extant metadata about collections in the
form of EAD finding aids and MARC records
• use a relational database management system with
Java Swing client user interface
• be deployable in a range of archival repositories
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Design Overview
•Administration/Project Management
•Ingest
•Accession
•Location
•Names
•Subjects
•Audit
•Search
•Description
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Task List
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Prerequisites
Installation
Application / Project Management
Manage Records
Audit Trail
Record Navigation
Generate Report
Search Database
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Application Software System
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Software system attributes
Installation requirements
Performance requirements
Design constraints
Other requirements
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Toolkit Context
Diagram
System
Administration
Interface
Entry Interface
Help
Search
interface
Search
Ingest
Accession
Name table
(creators, donors, personal
name subjects, executors)
Description
Subject table
(topical, genre, and
geographic subject terms)
Location
Application=hexagon
Modules=rectangles
(shadow indicates primary
modules)
Screen Output=circle
Paper Output=rounded
square
Interface=triangle
=
Audit Tracking
See next page for outputs
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Administrative in
orange
Data entry in
purple
Reference
in yellow
Log in
On-screen search
output
Administrative/
project
management
Audit output
Data entry
Reference
Set defaults
Search audit
Adminstative
settings
project
parameters
Permissions
entry
entry
audit
search
entry
accessions
description
entry
entry
name
subject
location
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Functional Modules
Kelcy Shepherd
Five Colleges
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Application/Project Management
• Establish repository record
• Manage users
• Customize default fields, required fields,
input forms
• Create project definitions
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Ingest Module
• EAD version 1.0 and
2002 (XML)
• MARC XML
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Accession Module
• Preliminary descriptive information
• Some collection management fields
• Descriptive and administrative outputs:
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Accession record
Accession receipt
Acquisitions report
Processing reports
More…
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Description Module
• Archival resources and surrogates
• Inputs based on DACS, ISAD(G)
• Outputs:
•EAD
•METS
•Dublin Core
•Collections guide
•MARC XML
•MODS
•Printed finding aids
•More…
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Location Module
• For tracking “permanent” locations
• Accommodate a range of practice
• Outputs:
– Location record
– Shelf list
– List of all locations for a resource
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Names Module
• Authority control for names (personal,
family, and corporate/conference)
• Includes fields for contact information,
biographical/historical note
• Supports see also and see references
• Outputs:
– Source record
– Sources list
– EAC record
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Subject Module
• Basic authority control for subjects
• Can create records in advance or on an asneeded basis
• Outputs:
– Repository subject guide
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Audit Tracking
• Uniquely identifies each record
• Allows repository to track creation and
editing of records
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Search Module
• For moderated use in reference setting
• Features:
– Search for resource by resource ID, title,
creator, or subject
– Search for resources, resource components,
surrogates, and surrogate components by
keywords in title
– Search for locations by resource ID
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Archivists’ Toolkit:
Application Architecture and Technology
Lee Mandell, Design Team Manager
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Back End (database)
• Developed with mySQL
• Will work with many SQL databases both
open source and commercial
– Partial list: DB2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase,
Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, Ingres ...
• Why SQL and not other technologies like xml
and object databases?
– Maturity of SQL databases
– Likelihood of local IT departments having SQL
expertise
– Many existing open source projects to integrate
Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
into the Archivists'
projects.
Front End (Client)
• Needs: Cross platform (Mac OSX, Windows
98+, Linux), open source, sophisticated user
interface capabilities
• Solution: Java desktop client
– Many more user interface options than a web based client
– Will run on any computer with Java 5 (1.5) installed
• Client and database can be installed on the
same computer or on different computers.
– Single machine configuration
– Local network configuration
– Wide area network configuration
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Open Source
• SourceForge
– Project will be listed by the end of the year.
– Source code will be available in an early alpha
version early next year for viewing only
– When we enter beta testing we will be open to
other developers joining the effort
• Anyone will be able to download the source
code and use it as they wish.
• We hope a developer community will grow
out of theArchivists'
project
Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
The Great Divide
or in technical terms
The Paradigm Mismatch
Java
SQL
Object Oriented
Programming Language
Relational Database
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
Hibernate
A persistence layer
• An open source project to bridge the
differences between Java and relational
databases
• Saves us from rolling our own
• Allows easy swapping of back end
databases
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
A Live Demonstration
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005
http://archiviststoolkit.org/
Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005